RANDOMS SHOTS: Old Cagayan de Oro aerial photo from Museo de Oro

I chanced upon this old aerial photo of pre-war Cagayan de Oro posted by Elson Elizaga at facebook. This interests me as this is perhaps one of the oldest aerial (with the camera shot almost perpendicular to the city).

The photo shown below is actually taken from Xavier University’s Museo de Oro. You may notice that the Ysalina (Carmen) Bridge is not yet completed. Lots of open spaces and agricultural lands back then.

I took note of the notable road network on the above photo and as shown below these major roads marked red are still existing today. The road bend on the left of the picture is actually the current junction of Puntod-Kauswagan Bridge today. The road bend at the bottom (Carmen side) is the Calamansi Drive (near SSS) today.

I further made labels on the roads and some existing landmark for easy understanding….such as XU, St. Augustine Cathedral and SSS in Carmen area. What puzzles me is the “bridge” which I circled green. Is this an old walk bridge? Perhaps somebody could clarify. The Isla de Oro back then is still a sandbar…

I then superimposed a Google-Earth shot of the city of the same angle and location…close enough. Note the difference. The river width at Carmen Bridge is narrower. In the old photo above, you can probably notice the delineation of an area starting from just below Julio Pacana and extends further to the right. I think a creek marks its boundary. In the photo below, this area is Consolacion and some portions of Abellanosa towards Isla de Oro.